Google Assistant is one of those tools in my bag that I don’t come close to fully using. That embarrasses me some, since the damn thing is spread around my house in every room on several gadgets and I write about it for a living, but its capabilities are so broad that I think it also intimidates me at times.
For example, if you head over to the “What it can do” page for Google Assistant from Google, browse for a minute and tell me you aren’t overwhelmed. Look at all that stuff! Did you know that Google Assistant can talk to the city of Detroit, get nutrition facts, track baby stats, sync your UPS My Choice account for package status updates, or check your Walgreens rewards balance? Outside of nutrition facts, I didn’t.
Google says there are “over 1 million actions to try” with the Google Assistant. Good lord. Here I am setting timers, turning lights on or adjusting their brightness, changing the temperature, utilizing Family Bells, asking basic Search questions, firing up a Spotify playlist, adding items to my shopping list, and of course, checking on the weather, but I still feel like I’m missing so much stuff.
So, I’m curious what you use Google Assistant for? Have you settled into the basic tasks like I just listed above or have you connected 3rd party apps and services to get even more out of it? Give me something you think is unique that I absolutely need to add to my repertoire.